Monday, October 15, 2012

There's a new kid in town...known as "Smart Camera". Things will change as the kid grows up.

There's a new kid in town...known as "Smart Camera". Things will change as the kid grows up.

You might be wondering where I'm going with a title like that? It's no news that the "Smart Phones" have progressed immensely in the last decade, and even faster in the past few years. Smartphones all have the capability of taking still pictures and video. I know, I know, they don't produce the best pictures yet, but they are getting there.

I don't think they will replace the DSLR cameras in the foreseeable future, but one day, they just might. It is so easy to take pictures and send them immediately to your friends, Facebook, Twitter, Image galleries, etc. It's no wonder that apps such as "Instagram" have gotten so popular. It makes you wonder where this is all going when Facebook paid one billion dollars to acquire the small company.Not only can you take pictures, but you can manipulate the images on your cell phone. Adobe has a version of Photoshop that runs as an app for the iPhone, and maybe Droid phones as well. I 'm not sure because I use an iPhone 4. Snapseed is another app that does wonder with image files.

Samsung recently announced the Samsung Galaxy Camera, that runs on Android 4.1. This is actually a camera that has the capability of taking pictures and video, then send them over a wi-fi connection or 3G/4G.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a new Android camera that has been introduced with a premium level specification, as both a high end Android device, as well as a high specification digital camera - it has the largest screen available in a digital camera, at 4.8 inches and also features a high speed quad-core processor. The camera will be available mid-October priced at around $650.00 U.S.

Key Features

16.3 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor

21x optical zoom lens, f/2.8-5.9, 23mm wide angle

Optical image stabilisation

4.8inch 16:9 touch screen 1280x720 HD resolution

1.4GHz quad-core processor

P/A/S/M Manual controls

ISO100-3200

8GB memory built in

Photo wizard, Best Group Pose

Smart Content Manager

Google Play Store - download apps etc

3G / 4G / Wi-Fi / GPS / Cloud backup

Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

MicroSD/SDHC memory card slot

Samsung say that the smart phone market is an extremely important market for them with 660 million units sold each year, compared to 120 million digital cameras sold each year, so they believe that the best way to grow the camera market is to bring the two together. In a lot of ways this makes sense, particularly if you are used to Android smartphones and want the same kind of applications and creative options on your camera.

Apple will likely follow with a camera based on their iOS, and Microsoft could be next. If this is accepted by the public, (and I think it will), we could soon see bigger sensors and who knows...future APS-c or Full Frame DSLRs could be equipped with similar capabilities.

Although the Galaxy camera cannot be used as a cell phone, I don't see why future models couldn't have that capability. Maybe one day, we will be able to alternate between a cell phone and a camera/phone, depending where we are and what we are doing.

Pentax has always been on the forefront of technology and I would be so proud of them if they could come out with a DSLR that also has Internet access and even phone access. Dreams do come true...sometimes.